Phaidra, whose technology keeps data centers power-efficient, raised $12M in new funding
Phaidra, a company founded by former DeepMind and Trane Technologies experts, has developed an AI-based autonomous control system that uses reinforcement learning to improve energy efficiency in data centers, addressing the growing concern over AI's environmental impact.
It is very likely that the most important takeaway from Google's 2024 Environmental Report is that the energy consumption demands of AI are concerning, to say the least, but unavoidable all the same. One specific figure that has been making waves since the report's publication is Google's 48% increase in greenhouse gas emissions since 2019. Unexpectedly, Google cites data center operations and supply chain emissions as driving the rise in greenhouse gas emissions. It needs no spelling out: the increase in emissions is due to the environmental impact of chip shipping and manufacturing on the one hand, and AI training and inferencing on the other.
Much can be said about the environmental impact of AI's energetic demands. However, a reasonable principle immediately presents itself: if Google, or any other industry player for that matter, is going to demand such massive amounts of energy, then it better make sure to squeeze every last ounce of efficiency out of its data centers. Phaidra is a company that figured out just that and has been making a business out of helping data centers improve energy efficiency and increase compute infrastructure ever since.
The company has developed an AI-based autonomous control system that uses reinforcement learning to gather real-time data and use it to make decisions that improve data centers' energy consumption while learning and improving over time. Phaidra claims its customers have witnessed savings amounting to millions of dollars.
Phaidra was founded by Jim Gao, former leader of the now-defunct DeepMind Energy, Vedavyas Panneershelvam, former research engineer at DeepMind, and Katie Hoffman, who led innovation projects at Trane Technologies. The company comprises about 100 researchers and engineers with combined years of experience at leading tech firms like Google, DeepMind, Meta, and Amazon; and engineering firms like Trane and Johnson Controls. Phaidra recently secured a $12 million investment led by Index Ventures, which brings its total raised capital to $60.5 million.
